A suspected case of New World screwworm has been detected in South Texas, prompting an immediate response from the U.S. Department of Agriculture as officials work to determine whether the flesh-eating parasite has crossed into the United States. The agency said samples have been sent to its National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa, for confirmatory testing and that personnel have already been deployed to the area to work with state and local partners.
While USDA has not publicly identified the exact location, Reuters reported the samples were collected from two calves on a ranch near La Pryor, Texas, roughly 50 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border. The Texas Animal Health Commission has emphasized that no confirmed case has yet been identified in the state.
The development comes just one day after Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced that a confirmed New World screwworm case had been detected in a goat in Mexico’s Coahuila state, approximately 25 miles from the Texas border, the closest confirmed detection to the United States during the current outbreak.
New World screwworm is a parasitic fly whose larvae feed on the living tissue of warm-blooded animals, including cattle, wildlife, pets and, in rare cases, humans. The pest was eradicated from the United States in the 1960s through a sterile fly release program, but its recent spread northward through Central America and Mexico has raised concerns throughout the livestock industry.
USDA has already taken several steps to prevent the parasite’s spread, including closing southern ports of entry to livestock imports from Mexico, expanding surveillance efforts and investing in sterile fly production and dispersal facilities in South Texas.
Federal officials say additional information will be released once laboratory testing is complete. Until then, the suspected South Texas detection remains unconfirmed.
